Candy Apple Red
by captainofyourship
Summary: Carnival time - mystery and magic. Bella Swan sells candy apples and wonders about the mysterious boy who keeps eluding her. Meanwhile, romance blossoms between her and Jake, the guy Alice has introduced her to. How will the carny spell affect them all?
1. Chapter 1

This story was originally posted for a Summer Of Love contest. There were various prompts that you had to include - I can't remember them all now, but lemonade was there, and watermelon and icecream and wet t-shirt contest and star-gazing. The story that won was called The Neighbor Boy, and it has since been pulled, but if it's ever posted again, I recomment that you read it. It's ace. It's the one I voted for!

I've divided this story into three chapters, btw, so there are two more to come. Enjoy!

CANDY

Long days, and longer nights...

The fair was in town over summer, and Bella Swan had gotten a job selling candy apples. You could work the morning shift, nine till four, or the evening, four till eleven, and she'd said yes to both. She was intoxicated on the sights and sounds, and when she was on days she stayed into the night, and when she was on nights she wanted to sleep there and never leave.

"Come to the beach, Bella," her friends kept asking, but Bella had an indoor tan, and the beach was out of bounds.

"Come swimming, hiking, rollerblading..."

The invitations were issued tirelessly, but Bella couldn't drag herself from the fair. She thought she might be a carny.

"Sorry, Alice, you know I've got fairy floss in my veins. Why don't you come meet me this afternoon and we'll go on rides together?" she suggested.

"God, Bella, not likely. Once you've finished work don't you just want to get out of there? Aren't you a bit sick of it?" Alice said one day on the phone. "We're having a sand-dune picnic this afternoon, and there'll be ice cream and watermelon. You are cordially invited. In other words, I expect you to attend. Don't worry about your milky-pale complexion, by the way - I'll pack sunscreen. And Bells, all the cute _boys_ are at the beach, you know."

"I'm allergic to sunscreen! You know it makes me break out in a rash. And ice cream makes me sneeze. And watermelon - well, it's just nasty," Bella protested, but she could take exception to another of Alice's claims as well. The boy remark. She had seen a cute boy at the fair, every day. He seemed to pass like a ghost - she'd catch a glimpse out of her peripheral vision, but when she tried to catch him with her eyes he'd disappear. It had been three weeks now, and he was as insubstantial as the first time. Once she'd even tried to follow him, but he was as frustratingly as out of sight as he was out of reach.

"Alice, if I come to the picnic today will you come to the rock concert tomorrow?"

"Done, Swannie. Look, I know you don't like the sun. I'll get you a giant parasol and you'll be fine," Alice rang off.

When Bella finished at four, she climbed into her beat up truck and drove straight to the beach. She could already hear the way Alice would groan at her clothes - jeans and a faded band t-shirt - because she had known from the tone of Alice's voice that Alice wanted to set her up with someone. That would be the reason behind the faux-humorous insistence that Bella attend, and the offer of the parasol, and the crack about boys.

Sure enough, Alice was waiting in the parking lot to intercept her.

"I brought you some shorts and a funky t-shirt," she said, after a quick hug, and an equally quick grimace at Bella's attire.

"NO in capitals," Bella responded. "Nothing skimpy, nothing revealing - and whatever you mean by _funky_ - none of that either."

"YES in skywriting," Alice said sternly, holding the items out. "Just open your door and get changed behind it. No-one will see you."

"Alice, I don't even own any shorts, therefore these are yours, therefore they won't fit me because I am a different size and shape to you. This stuff is all in the geometry textbook, it's a matter of basic mathematical principle."

Alice just laughed.

"Bella, I went to your house, and talked your Dad into letting me into your room, and I cut off a pair of your jeans. So you've now got one less pair of jeans, and you have a pair of shorts. Minus one, plus one. Everything evens out. There's some more maths for you, Miss Brainiac."

"You cut up my jeans?" Bella hissed in disbelief. Alice sure knew how to take a liberty. "I am not letting you copy my homework _ever again_!"

"Oh, hurry up already. I made lemonade, and I want to go drink it. It's sort of lemonade anyway, with tequila. Sort of margarita, really. You'll want some. And stop trying to argue about the shorts. You know I'll just wear you down until you give in," Alice pointed out.

Bella shrugged, scowling, and reluctantly peeled down her jeans, which were now on the endangered list, tossing them into the truck behind her. Alice hadn't cut the other pair off_ too_ short, she realized. She had to take her bra off at Alice's instruction, which made her scowl more, but Alice was completely above recriminations, and immune to best friend disapproval. The t-shirt she'd brought spelt Love Me backwards.

"That's better. You look a bit less like a - what do you call your look again? Person without wardrobe definition?" she asked cheekily, pulling Bella along in the sand behind her. "Hey, everyone - guess who finally agreed to come after a little gentle coercion?"

"You're just lucky I like you, Alice Cullen, otherwise I'd kill you," Bella muttered, but she adored Alice, who could get away with anything, and frequently did.

The usual suspects were in a group around a half-finished sand castle that Bella could definitely see Alice's touch in, and a few more of them were playing volleyball. It was immediately obvious who Alice wanted her to meet - there was only one new face.

"Oh, Bella, this is Jake," Alice said casually, dropping to her knees next to the sandcastle. Jacob was Native American, and stunning. He was also shirtless, and Bella had never seen so many muscles on one person in her life.

"Spade, Bella?" he offered, handing her a child's plastic spade. "Alice is the chief architect here, and she's treating the rest of us like laborers. She's a hard boss. If I didn't think she was a direct descendent of Gaudi's I'd be telling her to go jump."

Bella was surprised. Not everybody got Alice, and not everybody recognized her gifts.

"If you told her to jump she'd somersault," Bella said, and Jake raised an eyebrow. They kept working on the castle for a while, following Alice's orders, until Alice called everyone together and started distributing drinks.

"You can have beer, beer, beer, or lemonade, made by my own fair hand. And it's not exactly lemonade. And there's orange juice, and water, too," she announced. "Here Bella, have some of this, it's medicinal," she stated, before Bella had time to declare her preference.

Jake opted for the margarita too, and Alice must have spiked it with humor potion, because although Bella had already been smiling inwardly at him, now she laughed openly, and he did the same. Damn Alice. Bella was fairly sure she didn't want a boyfriend, just as Alice was fairly sure she needed one, and now here was the boy Alice had found for her, who was of course, perfect. The other people there talked and chatted, but to Bella they were all marginal and Jake seemed to be the only person she could take any notice of.

"Right, I'm delegating. Architect's privilege," Alice suddenly declared. "Erik and Angela, you're on shell detail. Go south. Mike and Jessica, go up into the dunes and find twigs or flowers. Jake and Bella, you're on shells, too. Go north. Lauren and Tyler - "

Bella stopped listening after that. Jake stood and held out a hand and pulled her up, and she felt a little dazed and cloudy from the tequila, a little sharp-edged and clear, too. He was extremely tall, and he had everything going for him. Everything. Thoughtful, clever, funny, and he and Alice liked each other. That made him pretty much perfect for Bella Swan.

They wandered along, and neither seemed to feel the urge to speak for a while, and that made him more perfect.

"Hey, you know that liquid fire Alice has been I-V-ing us with? What do you think it's got in it?" he asked suddenly, reaching for her, and slipping an arm around her waist as though it was the most natural thing in the world.

Bella was fairly sure it contained love potion no. 9 but she didn't want to say so. No-one had ever had the nerve, or made the error of judgement, to touch her like this within a few hours of meeting her, but right now she was absolutely okay with it.

"Hey, what does em - evol mean?" he asked, and light-headed and light-hearted, Bella skipped into the waves and kicked water at him.

"Oh, no you don't," he said warningly. "You just _don't. _I'm very good at splashing, and you're going to get seriously soaked."

He followed her in and flicked water at her, and they were both playful and it was all out war, until Bella remembered that wet shorts were going to be really, really uncomfortable. She splashed her way back to the water's edge laughing, but he wasn't laughing, he was staring.

"You win the wet t-shirt competition. Not fair," he said quietly, and she looked down at herself, remembering now that her bra was lying under her jeans on the front seat of the truck. Her top was painted on by sea-water, her nipples standing to attention. She blushed and looked back up at him as he wrenched his eyes away, muttering, "We don't seem to have found any shells."

Neither of them spoke again as they collected a couple of handfuls each, but this time not talking was awkward, and Bella broke the silence to ask Jake about himself. He was a local, and had been away at University studying ecology and conservation, and was planning to become a ranger.

"And you?" he asked.

"I've moved here this year from Phoenix to live with my Dad. I'm studying English literature, and I want to be a teacher."

"Who's your Dad? I might know him."

Bella laughed. "I hope you haven't met him in his professional capacity. He's the Police Chief - Charlie Swan."

Jacob whistled. "You're _Izzie_ _Swan_? I used to play with you when you were about three years old and I was five. My dad Billy is Charlie's best friend. Charlie told me his daughter was coming back... You sure growed up, little Isabella."

"Not as much as you did," Bella retorted. "I've just worked out you're Jacob Black."

"The very same," he nodded. They were smiling easily now, and Bella didn't miss the shrewd look Alice gave them both when they handed over their booty of sea magic, and Alice pressed the shells into the castle walls creating a pattern beneath the crenellations.

"Time for a fire, and more food, and more drinks, and then scary stories," she stated, as everyone admired her handiwork.

"Alice your masterpiece is inside the wave line. It won't survive the tide," Bella remarked to her friend while they trudged up through the fine sand to the hinterland to gather branches.

"Oh, I know. It's perfectly zen, don't you think?" Alice said, calmly.

Jake was beside them. "Like a sidewalk chalk drawing," he said.

"Exactly. You're the bomb, Jakey," Alice laughed, and Bella thought to herself that he probably was.

Later when the scary stories started she didn't want to listen to them, and made an excuse to go back to her truck. Mike had started on some ghoulish tale about a girl who found a creepy boy in her bedroom every time she woke up, and she didn't know if he was real or not, but then it turned out he was someone from her school who was climbing into her room every night and watching her sleep. Of course he turned out to be some sort of murderer, and Bella hated the story, hated the whole idea of it, even as the other girls asked lewdly if the boy had been handsome. As if that would make a difference.

"Hey, Bells, gruesome tellings of The Legend of the Night-Stalker not your entertainment of choice?" Jake's voice said, and he was walking alongside her back towards the car park. "I hope you're not leaving."

"No, I thought I'd just chill out a bit. Do some star-gazing," Bella told him.

"Mind if I join you?"

"No, s'okay," she answered, and he climbed easily into the tray and extended a hand to help her up. They lay back together, heads on their folded arms, and Jake pointed out constellations, embarking on a long and complicated tale he claimed was passed down through the generations amongst his people from father to son. It was the story of the Sky Father and the Earth Mother, and their children who became tree spirits and animal totems. While he was talking he extended an arm and Bella wriggled across a little to put her head on his shoulder. His voice grew quieter, and she grew sleepier and then the story changed a little, becoming about the girl-with-stars-in-her-hair, and the boy who loved her. It was wistful and beautiful, and very romantic, but when he said the girl had brown eyes, Bella grew suspicious.

"You can't see that up there! There isn't any brown in the sky. You're making it up - that's not a traditional story at all," she accused, and she could sense him smiling.

"Just seeing if you were still awake," he assured her. "I thought I heard snores."

"Yes, I'm awake," she whispered, and without allowing herself a second to think better of her impulse, she raised her head and pressed her lips to his. He only permitted the kiss for a moment before drawing his head away, but not before she had tasted the salt on his lips, and felt the warmth and softness, and had felt them part.

"Bella," he said softly. "I only met you this afternoon. I'm trying to be a good boy here, and not jump on you like a ravenous wolf."

"What if I want you to jump on me?" she whispered. She had never felt so bold.

"Jesus Christ. Okay, I'll do the jumping - but how about a date first? What are you doing tomorrow?" he said, his hand in her hair. He'd rolled to lie on his side facing her, and his mouth moved over her cheek.

"There's going to be a rock concert at the carnival. Will you meet me there?"

He didn't answer, he just nodded, and he slid a hand to her hip as if to pull her closer. Then he seemed to change his mind, and she couldn't see his expression in the dark as he brought the hand back up to her face and kissed her. The kiss was gentle, his mouth was already open and seemed incredibly warm. He didn't plunder her, he was tender, although she didn't feel as though he was holding anything back. She felt as though he was kissing her exactly the way he wanted to. Then with a groan he rolled onto his back again, and said, "Tomorrow."

She felt high and humming all the way home, full of anticipation and promise. High on a new boy, who had eyes crinkled from smiling, a mouth ripe for kissing, and arms that might have been made just to hold her.

.

.

.

We all know I love Mr Black.


	2. Chapter 2

APPLE

The next day Bella sold sticky red out-of-season apples to kids who looked as if they'd already filled their daily sugar intake as recommended by the FDA, and to older folk who looked as though the apples' coating would give them dental grief, but she couldn't concentrate. If the shadow boy slipped past her she didn't notice, she was full of Jake. After work she went home and showered and changed from one pair of jeans and a band t-shirt into another pair of jeans and band t-shirt, knowing that Alice would roll her eyes and shake her head, but hey, Jake had been wearing jeans and a band t-shirt as well. A match made in heaven, obviously.

She met him behind the mixing desk, slightly away from the crush of sweaty bodies already accumulating in front of the stage and stretching back across the grass area.

"Bella," he grinned, his smile giving the evening sky some competition. His huge hands spanned her waist, making her feel tiny, and he leaned to kiss the top of her nose. "Is Alice gracing us with her company?"

"Yep, she'll be along any time now," Bella grinned back, delighted at the very sight of him. She hadn't been able to sleep. She'd indulged in a practice she rarely indulged in, alone as she was in the deep night where no-one would know. She'd remembered his hand on her hip, and shivered, and imagined his hand moving around to her inner thigh and above, and she'd pretended to herself that her hand was his, and she'd done what she wanted him to do. Just one of the things she wanted him to do - most of the other others she couldn't do herself. Now just seeing him she blushed with the memory of her clenching and spasms, and the aching way she'd pressed her thighs together.

"Well, I'm going to be able to see from anywhere, but I'm thinking of you and Alice - we can either go closer, or we can move back to where the ground rises and sit up there," he was saying. She was watching his mouth, because it's polite to watch someone's mouth when they speak to you, isn't it? He grinned again, noting the direction of her stare.

"Do we want to sit with Alice?" he asked. "Or do we want to sit on our own? Jesus, Bella, you'd better stop looking at me like that."

"Like what?" she asked, and she wasn't grinning, and neither was he.

The carnival was in the city's showgrounds, on a low flat area which rose to one side, and that was where Bella and Jake went to sit and watch the bands. The gang from Bella's university showed up eventually, after some texting, and Alice plopped herself down next to Bella and set to whispering in her ear, "So was I right about you two? Glad you came yesterday? Am I the best? When are you going to find_ me_ the love of _my_ life?" and Bella whispered back, "Too early to say. I like him so far. And write me a list of your requirements - I'll interview everyone who buys one of my apples and if anyone qualifies I'll set you up. You can rely on me."

The bands started, and Bella watched, rapt. Alice had some more of her so-called lemonade, and was passing it round, and Jake moved to sit behind Bella, his long, long thighs on either side of hers, his arms lightly around her. She was fairly sure she wanted to lick him from knee to groin, and fairly sure if she had much more of Alice's lemony marvel she'd do it. The first band were good, and Jake's feet tapped, and his fingers kept time on her shoulders and the rhythm went straight through her. The second band were good too, and he pulled her back against him, against his chest and against his heart and she felt it pounding lazily into her back, until she tilted her head back, and his lips were at her neck, and his heart quickened.

Then with a gasp she felt his hands shift to cup her breasts, and the music was hypnotic and insistent, and his thumbs moved over her nipples, both at the same time and she twisted a little, not enough to interrupt him, but enough to seek his mouth, and he kneaded her breasts and she found herself panting into him with the sheer force of arousal, and felt his dick rise and harden against her as his own breathing grew ragged and uneven.

It was dark now, and all the lights were concentrated on the stage, and she couldn't even see him, but she could feel him, the heat of his mouth and his body, his arms and his fingers, and his tongue moved into her mouth, sweeping her teeth, he didn't fuck her with it, he just explored and she slid her own along his and felt more than heard him moaning softly, and she wanted to push back into his hips, but she wanted to feel him at the front of her, and as if he knew her thoughts he dropped a hand to her leg and touched her there, his fingers moving along the seam of her jeans until he found the place where the seams joined, and he cupped her there pressing gently, the other hand still at her breast, the fingertips now softly circling her nipple, his lips swallowing the soft noises she was helplessly making.

He broke away, asking breathlessly, "Bella, is there somewhere we can go?"

"My stall," she said back, and gave Alice a tap, and a goodnight wave, and she led Jake by the hand to the little place she spent hours of every day, darker than dark in the black night, and they stood kissing, her tongue lapping urgently at his now, his mouth firmer against hers. They lay down in there on the warm ground which still held the sun's heat, even this late, and Bella pulled his t-shirt up over his abdomen, learning him by braille, knowing he was smiling into her neck. He pulled her t-shirt up, too, and what his fingers had done to her breasts his mouth now did, but more, his lips being so much softer than his hands, and his tongue softer again than his lips. When she reached for his belt buckle, he halted her.

"Like this? Is this what you want? We don't have to, Bella. It's okay with me, I'm already in heaven. We can go back to your place, or we can wait, I'm good, sweetheart. Anything you want," he murmured.

Bella could still hear the music, and it was urging. She was high on Alice's mad drink, and she had never met anyone she wanted like she wanted Jake. She felt scared he'd slip away somehow, and she wanted to keep him. She felt scared it was all an illusion, part of the carny magic, the summer magic, and she wanted to make it solid. She felt a rush of lust that was as much to do with what he said to her as what he looked like, and she was already out of her mind wanting to hold him in every way, with her lips, her arms, her legs, and with her very insides, her hidden walls, she wanted to feel him there and give him the secret kiss with her other lips, and with her secret skin.

"Baby," he groaned when her hand drifted over the front of his jeans, and she paused then, because just as his hands were huge, and she had seen that his feet were too, this hard ridge of his body stretched tightly sideways across him was surely way more than she would able to cope with, and she wondered if it was now too late to stop him.

He must have sensed her sudden doubt, because he whispered against her mouth, "It's going to be okay, trust me, I know what to do, I won't hurt you, Bella, and if you want to stop, we will."

She shifted her hand back up across his chest, and felt his hardened nipples, so much smaller than her own but just as responsive, and in the dark she gave her assent. Whispering his name, she threw one leg across him, pressing her hips hard against his, and hard against his hardness, rocking herself against him in a frenzy now that she knowing of his arousal, hearing him groan against her. In moments she was close to coming, and she knew she should wait, because she wanted to share her orgasm more fully with him. She wanted him to be inside of her for it and she moved away, feeling him sigh as her surging hips left his, but then his hands were at her button and zip, and he pulled the jeans down over her hips, and her panties too. He kissed down her legs following the fabric, and pulled her clothes off her ankles, then undid his belt and his own jeans and followed suit.

"Are you sure?" he breathed into her mouth even as he pulled her to him, and his cock slipped between her thighs. "We don't have to rush..." but Bella was already rushing, her hands on his sides down to his hips, pulling him, her mouth open at his chest, nipping him. They lay like that for a while, facing each other, one of his arms under her neck and the other holding her hip. He was fucking her between the legs as she bit his neck and chest, but it wasn't enough for either of them, and he reached back to his discarded jeans, retrieving a condom from the pocket and ripping the packet open, and rolling the condom over his erection.

"Bella, trust me. This will take a while, I know what I'm doing," he whispered, and she wondered what he was talking about, but he pushed her onto her back and moved over her, settling himself between her legs, and he took his weight on one elbow, while with the other hand he guided his cock along her opening, slowly, slowly. She thought she was ready, and she felt the head of him, and he barely pushed into her, and she arched up, and he was thrusting very slowly, and so gently he wasn't making any headway, but the kisses were continuing softly, and she kissed him back and she felt him pushing harder. When she felt the sheer size of him she swallowed and gasped, but he persisted gently, opening her slowly, and she realized that someone had taught him this, that he would have hurt her if he wasn't so slow, and when he was all the way in she couldn't believe how filled and how stretched she was, and how lost for words.

"God. Christ. Fuck," he muttered, completely still on top of her, and she tilted her hips, feeling full up to her throat, and feeling every inch of him encompassed by her, feeling him throb, and knowing she was accommodating him, but needing movement. She rocked up to him, hearing him swear again softly as he moved back into her, and now she knew he was being careful, and for the first time she wondered why having a big dick was so highly regarded when the possessors of them had to be so restrained, but as he pulled out and pushed back in again she found she needed more force from him, and realized that her body and her wetness could take him. She wanted all of him, she wanted him hard and fast. He seemed to know it, he read her responses, and he thrust evenly and ever faster as she whimpered beneath him, the band of muscles at her entrance gripping him tightly and feeling the friction.

"Jake, fuck me forever, I don't want to come, I don't want it to finish," she said brokenly and he bent to suck on her neck, panting, "I can't, Bella, not this time. I'm going to explode. Do you need me to slow down? What do you need?"

She took his hips in her hands to direct him, and even as she did he sank further down into her moaning, "No, no, Christ, I'm sorry," as his movements became erratic, and desperate and he threw his head back, groaning.

He collapsed then, to the side of her, hips still across hers and an arm over her, and his hand stroking her side and murmured, "That wasn't meant to happen. That wasn't how I played it out in my mind."

"You played it out in your mind?" Bella teased lightly, having done the same thing. He held the condom in place as he withdrew, then his hand was at her hip, then on her lower abdomen, then in her nest of dark curls, then between them, seeking. Her breath caught.

"Yes, I did. I didn't sleep very well last night," he confessed, and now his fingertips were at her clitoris. He kissed her and kissed her, and didn't stop, his hips still pressing against her, the kisses moving between her mouth and her breast, and his fingers featherlight and teasing until she came shuddering in his hand, her breath gasping in his mouth, his name torn with a groan from her.

"My girl," he whispered, gathering her up in his arms from the hard ground. "You're beautiful, you're wonderful, I'm yours. When can I see you?"

Bella still couldn't quite speak, and buried her face in his chest, mouth wide open tasting his skin.

"Uh, I work here every day except Monday, for the next three weeks," she finally managed. "I'm mostly on nights, I finish at eleven." Jake was helping her put her bra on, expertly. Someone had taught him that, too.

"Eleven, sweetheart? I'm nine to five with the National Park Service. I can come down at about seven and keep you company until you knock off, or I can pick you up at eleven. That's if you want, of course."

"My Dad usually comes by when I finish late."

"Right. I don't want to piss off the FPD, but I do want to see you. Name the day. I can come every day, Bella. Tell me what you want." He was even helping her with her jeans, and they were both laughing as she stood on one foot and fell into him. The concert had finished and most of the people seemed to have left - the two of them would have to get out soon because the showgrounds were locked overnight and patroled by police with dogs.

"Where's Charlie tonight then?" Jake asked, as they walked hand in hand back to the car park.

"He's at the station. I'm supposed to be getting a lift with Alice - oh no! I said good bye to her - she will have gone!" Bella exclaimed.

"I've got my bike, I can take you. I've only got one helmet though - you'll have to wear it. We'd better hope we're not pulled up," he said, and it was only a short ride, as Bella didn't live far from the carnival site. She would have like a longer ride, both because of the bike, and because of sitting behind Jake wrapped around him. He left her with lingering kisses at her front door, under the porch light, grinning at her, "If any of your neigbors are looking out of their windows right now, your daddy is going to know very quickly that Billy Black's boy is all over Charlie Swan's little girl."

"And she's all over him," Bella smiled back.

She slept well that night. Replete, sated, dreaming of stars and seashells and kisses from wolves.

But at work the next day, the shadow boy was waiting for her. He didn't flit away, or melt into shadows, or disappear - he simply stood at the stall watching as she approached for the start of her shift at four o'clock. She saw him properly for the first time. He was tall, although nowhere near as tall as Jake, and he was astonishingly pale. He had messy dark reddish hair, liquid gold eyes, and against the pallor of his skin his mouth was candy apple red.

"I've been waiting for you," he said, and she couldn't place his accent.

"Waiting for me? Why? Do you want an apple?" she asked.

"No," he said. "I've noticed you reading and I wondered if you want to talk about books."

"Books?" Bella said, confused.

"I'm working here too, in the Hall of Mirrors. The other guys I work with here only want to talk about girls and drinking, and I don't have anything in common with them. I love books. I saw you with Charlotte Bronte the first week, and the other day you had The Tempest. Do you read anything modern? What else do you like?"

Bella felt like she was running at a few seconds behind him. She could still feel Jake on her skin, she was dazed by the day, and here was someone asking her a question she should have a proper answer for.

"Uh, yeah, I read all sorts of things. I'm doing an English degree, so at the moment most of it is prescribed, but it's still a pleasure."

"My name is Edward. Have you read Cold Comfort Farm? It's a parody of romantic doom and gloom novels, like the Bronte sisters' work, for instance - it's very good," he said.

"Yes, I have and I loved it. I had to do an assignment relating it to Wuthering Heights. I'm Bella, by the way," Bella replied, and had to turn from him to serve some customers. He was still there when she turned back.

"When is your break? I can see you're going to get busy, but I can come back later," he offered, his strange golden eyes glancing over her face. She wondered if she should tell him she had a boyfriend, although she had only known Jake for two days. It might be premature to claim him as such.

"Eight," she said. "I have time off between eight and nine."

"I'll see you then," he responded, and although she watched him, he seemed to only take a couple of steps before he'd disappeared.

The afternoon went by, and the evening went by, and at eight he was there. They walked, and he told her he was a pianist, and had had to choose between medicine and music. He'd picked medicine, reasoning that music was something he could still pursue in his free time. He had a strangely old fashioned way of speaking, and Bella almost felt as though he were a character from one of the books he was so obviously passionate about. She bought herself a hotdog and he shook his head and grimaced when she asked if he was going to have one. He'd read everything she had, and had a dozen suggestions of books she might like. The hour was gone before she knew it, and he was, too.

On Monday she met Jake at six, telling Charlie she was seeing him, but downplaying it.

"Billy Black's Jake? That Goliath?" Charlie snorted, but he looked pleased.

"Let's take your truck, Bells. What do you want to do? Eat? Catch a movie? Visit Alice? Or..." Jake said.

Bella chose or... and he flushed slightly, his full lips parting and his eyes smoldering as he regarded her. "Could you sneak a blanket and some pillows past your old man?"

"They're already in the truck," she said, and he flushed a little more, but wouldn't touch her in sight of the house.

"Good girl," he said.

He directed her, and she drove into the woods to a spot he knew about an hour away where it was cool and damp and dark and deeply green, with a whispering of forest sounds and a fresh smell of growth and life. He spread the blanket on the ground and loved her quickly the first time, but much more slowly the second. Their timing was out the first time again, but by the second time he was able to wait for her, and at the end she was with him fully, their swells rising and cresting together, their waves crashing.

Afterwards he held her tight in the pitch black, and he told her about the forest sounds, identifying everything they could hear. If she wasn't with him she would have been terrified, but Jake banished fear, with his size and his confidence.

"I think we should go grab a pizza before we get you home," he said, and she realized guiltily that she hadn't mentioned Edward, although she rationalized that it just wasn't form while you were making love to say, "Oh, by the way, I met another guy yesterday who seems pretty interesting."

"What sort of thing do you like to read?" she asked him while they were driving back.

"Uh, I look through the newspaper, and other than that, mostly journals and magazines on wildlife and environmental stuff. I have to read reports at work. That's about it."

"No fiction?"

"Not really, not since school."

"What music do you like?"

He laughed. "I like the music you make when you come, Bella Swan," he said.

Bella felt absolutely smitten. They had pizza, and he ate enough for three people while she smiled at his appetite, and she slipped her shoe off and rubbed his crotch with her foot under the table until he growled and told her to cut it out or he wouldn't be able to stand up. She took the keys and drove them back to her place, murmuring and smiling with him until he said goodbye without an actual kiss, he just blew her one, and he rode away on his motorbike, and she went in and fell asleep hugging her pillow. Again.

.

.

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We all know I love Mr Black!


End file.
